ChimpersCage

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill.–  History was made for Fighting Illini Basketball on Wednesday night, as freshmen  Kasparas Jakucionis  (Vilnius, Lithuania) and  Will Riley  (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada) became the first-ever one-and-done players for the Illinois program. The Illini stars were selected back-to-back in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft, with  Jakucionis  taken at No. 20 overall by the Miami Heat and  Riley  going to the Washington Wizards the very next pick at No. 21 as part of a trade with Utah. Illinois stands as one of just three programs with multiple first-round picks in this year's draft, along with Duke (3) and Rutgers (2). This marks the first time in 20 years, and just the third time in school history, that Illinois has had two first-round picks in the same draft, joining 1989 (Nick Anderson and Kenny Battle) and 2005 (Deron Wiliams and Luther Head). Illinois has now had four players selected in the NBA Draft du...

  On the sun-washed east side of Rosie's Pub in downtown Bloomington, Illinois, time folds quietly into color. There, painted across brick and mortar, stands Abraham Lincoln—not as the towering president of textbooks, but as a man mid-sentence, eyes lit with the fire of conviction. The mural, a vivid tribute to Lincoln’s “Lost Speech,” captures more than a moment—it captures a mystery. It’s said that on May 29, 1856, Lincoln gave an address so stirring at Major’s Hall that reporters, mesmerized, forgot to take notes. The words vanished into the air, leaving behind only the legend of their power. Locals pass by the mural every day, some slowing their steps to gaze upward. In the swirls of patriotic blues and historic reds, they imagine Lincoln’s voice echoing against the walls, as if the mural is whispering what history lost. Tourists snap photos, unaware that beneath their feet, the old foundations of Major’s Hall still sleep. On warm evenings, when the breeze cuts down Main Street...